Connect to Community: 5 Upcoming Opportunities

We’re continuing to explore ways to connect to community in Tacoma even as in-person events and gatherings are postponed and reimagined. For the past couple of years we’ve created monthly lists featuring ways to get to know Tacoma, to get involved, to meet each other, to learn, and give, and explore. This January we started shifting to weekly posts with 3-5 ideas for staying engaged. We hope you find something once in a while that connects to you, inspires you, or just sounds like fun.

Connect to Tacoma with Events & Gatherings

Hilltop Stories: Meet the Artists - Dionne Bonner & Whitney Brady

Friday, January 29th
7-8:30 pm
Online Event

Hilltop Stories: Visual and Audio Reflections is now showing at the Handforth Virtual Gallery. Visual art: Dionne Bonner, Audio: Whitney Brady

Experience a Virtual Gallery Exhibit on Wed, Feb. 3rd!

Black Parents Alliance: Black History Month Game Night

Wednesday, February 3rd
6:30-7:30 pm
Online Event

Compete against other families for prizes in 3 rounds of Kahoot:

Round 1: “Traditional” Black History
Round 2: Pop-culture (80s-early 2000s)
Round 3: Current pop-culture.

Please note: you must belong to our join the Black Parents Alliance Facebook Group to participate in this event.

Connect to Tacoma with Ongoing Opportunities

Tacoma Refugee Choir Teen Sings

Wednesdays
4-5:15 pm
Zoom

Free and open to all students grades 6-12! For now, this is a community-building experience via Zoom, but the hope is to create an in-person teen singing experience when it’s safe to do so.

Image from The Grand Cinema

Image from The Grand Cinema

Support The Grand Cinema via the Virtual Screening Room

Any day
You choose the time
Online

We can’t go to our favorite local cinemas right now, but we can still offer them support and help keep them going! Visit The Grand’s Virtual Screening Room from the comfort of your home theater (ie your couch, your bed, that one corner you retreat to) and select a film to screen. Prices reflect the cost of traditional ticket, but you only need one for your household. Choose individual films, or consider purchasing the Oscar Contenders From Around the World pass ($30, four films).

Connect to Tacoma by Volunteering, Donating & Accessing Services

Donate Urgently Needed Items to Tacoma Rescue Mission

The Tacoma Rescue Mission serves vulnerable children, women, and men of our community. With a few different ways to give, you might find one that works for you and helps people who could use a hand!

  • Drop-off items (make sure to note which location to head to with your help)

  • Send items through the Tacoma Rescue Mission’s Wish List

  • Make a secure financial gift

  • Donate your car! (for this one, contact Jess at jesss@trm.org)

  • All the details at Tacoma Rescue Mission

Keep in touch about Tacoma life, community, events, homes, and a bit about us.

We had an impromptu Saturday afternoon date up at 7 Seas with lunch from Canteen Colvos (smash burger, sweet potato fries, and a lobster roll 🦞), coffee from Naomi Joe (sweet folks), and a wee bit of pinball. Gretchen couldn’t sleep that night
This year we’re back with a list of 10 ways to give love in December ❤️ Our guide includes 5 recommendations for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small shops, and 5 suggestions for giving to unknown neighbors outs
On this closing day the biggest excitement came from a 7 year old who’s about to have his own room and who loves (fervently) the bathroom downstairs with orange walls. We’re excited for the whole family. Friendly neighbors came over to sa
I’m grateful Michael is willing to join me again, again, again and again on Orcas Island. We went last week so I could turn 41 in a place where my heart feels quiet, where deer tracks and bird tracks cross on the beach, where paths bordered by
When even the east glows at sunset What stills me in one window frame Where fabric flower feather and wax make the table a place How light of sky and light of candle and light of bulb need their own names Why home is also the distance seen beyond its
Featured
10 Ways to Give Local Love - 2024
10 Ways to Give Local Love - 2024

This year we’re back with a list of 10 ways to give love in December. You’ll find our guide for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small shops included, and 5 suggestions for giving to unknown neighbors outside your circle of friends. All 10 ways of giving put love into the Tacoma community! Read on for the magic of a musical play given by kids, a list of local cafes for coffee lovers, a gift card drive to support clients at the YWCA, a nostalgic holiday movie marathon, a way to support health and care for folks who can’t afford insurance, a chance to transform $1 into 2 meals, and the best local spots to shop for little ones.

What's New, Tacoma? 17 New Businesses + 3 Coming Soon
What's New, Tacoma? 17 New Businesses + 3 Coming Soon

There’s change in the air across Tacoma, the return of things once lost, the reopening of places once closed, the transformation of one restaurant into another, the creation of brand new places to gather, shop, eat, and drink. We’ve been experiencing this change across the city and wanted to pull some of it together in one place. What follows is a list of 17 new, renewed, and returned businesses along with 3 coming soon. See if you can enjoy and support something new this month; if you do, we’d love to hear about it!

Tacoma Community: 15 Things to Do in October
Tacoma Community: 15 Things to Do in October

We’ve rounded-up and narrowed-down 15 ways to get out into community this October. Don your most intellectual scarf and hat combination for a literary night, dance and eat with the Greeks, step into a candlelit tour our 1855, get psyched up about cycling (and bicycle fashion), try forest bathing, don your most eccentric scarf and hat combination for the film festival, write letters for fun, tour art studios, hear from Latinas who experience being The Firsts in so many ways, take a local art walk, and celebrate Día de los Muertos. We’ve got some ways to volunteer in here too—lend a hand with Habitat for Humanity, pick up litter, or pull weeds and plant seeds at a favorite park to keep Tacoma green.

Get Out of Town: Puget Sound Day Trips
Get Out of Town: Puget Sound Day Trips

Once in a while, we all need to get out of town. This month we’re sharing about Port Townsend and Vashon Island, two places we go again and again when a change of scene is calling. They’re places where the beach is always near, where parking is easy, where woods and trails beckon us away from the sidewalks. Places where small, local bakeries, coffee roasters, independent bookstores, and one of a kind shops outnumber chains by far. We’ll share some of the ways we pass the time and how we fill our stomachs (never a problem). Don’t worry too much about planning; these destinations are so close to Tacoma, you can show up again and try what you missed. Wake up one morning and just decide to go!

Tacoma Outdoor Dining Guide
Tacoma Outdoor Dining Guide

Want to go out and really be out—out in the open air, beneath a colorful umbrella, on a shaded patio, beside a bustling sidewalk, seated on a deck overlooking the water, pulled up to a bar counter by the street? We’ve gathered over 60 of Tacoma’s outdoor dining spots by neighborhood to get you started. Take a look at our list of restaurants, cafes, and bars with outdoor seating, then get yourself away from the screen, out the door, and into the life of Tacoma’s summer. See you out there!

Out on the Town 2024: Tacoma Tuesdays
Out on the Town 2024: Tacoma Tuesdays

Tacoma, Tuesdays, Trivia, Tacos, Talent. It’s the truth, there’s stuff to do. We have 19 of those things listed right here (twenty would have sounded so good) and not all of them start with “t.” There’s ballet and book club, wine and film, story time and bingo. So dust off your dancing shoes, clean your spectacles, strap the baby in a stroller, study up on random facts, warm up your vocal chords, and work up an appetite; it’s Tuesday in Tacoma!

Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things—Vol. 4
Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things—Vol. 4

This is not an ultimate, all time, best of the best, win or go home, top 5 list. No, we aren’t really bringing that kind of energy to life. This is the 4th edition of 5 things we like in Tacoma from a list of way more things we like in Tacoma. Sound good? An annual rogue art treasure hunt, a tiny slip of sandy beach, an old place to watch new and cult classic films, a weekly opportunity for repairing your stuff, and a spot where the noodles and broth fill you up in a good way. Some of it’s free. All of it’s good. We’re not making any other claims (who needs all that best-stress anyway?).

The Sunset Side: Tacoma's Other Waterfront
The Sunset Side: Tacoma's Other Waterfront

This month we're here to give a shout out to the other waterfront, the home of Titlow Beach, Seashore Drive, the iconic Narrows Bridges, and the Tacoma sunset. We’ll share where we eat and what we order, the trails we like to take, and what makes this side of the city feel like home. All you need is one evening for a waterfront getaway.

Hi, I'm Michael Duggan, a licensed broker with Windermere Abode. I would love to help you through the home buying or selling process. Please contact me to set up a meeting and get things started.